BLACK FRIDAY AT MONSTER MOVIE WORLD

BELA LUGOSI INTERVIEW

Bela Lugosi is seen here in this poignant clip. He is interviewed as he leaves the sanitarium after a 90-day treatment for an addiction to morphine and pain killers. The vibrant Lugosi looks and sounds healthy as he talks frankly about his addiction to pain medication to help alleviate a painful sciatica nerve and working in his next movie with a certain "Eddy Wood". A fascinating historical artifiact.

"BROADWAY DRACULA" MODEL KIT NEWS

Exciting news on the monster model front! Moebius Models is developing a new kit "modeled" after Bela Lugosi's 1927 Broadway production of DRACULA. The 1:8th scale model will be made from mold injected plastic and will include figure and base. Officially licensed by the Bela Lugosi estate, the kit will be packaged in a "classic style model box" (maybe after the legendary Aurora "long boxes"?). No other news is available at this time, but a few shots of the prototype sculpt have been circulating (see below).

ATMOSPHEAR SCENE 2: RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE (1944)

Presented here are a few more shots of the Columbia Pictures production of RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE, starring Bela Lugosi and Nina Foch. Used quite effectively are the evocation of dream-like images such as leaf-strewn breezes through the open windows of a veranda, fog-lit somnambulism and framed shots to guide the viewer's eye. Shadow and symbolism is used superbly in the last example.

ATMOSPHEAR SCENE 1: RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE (1944)

There are numerous visual elements that are used to set the scene and mood in monster movies and other supernatural horror films. The most successful of these are those that are less noticeable and natural, sometimes even subliminal. That's why art direction, set design and lighting are oftentimes taken for granted -- especially when they are done well -- because they have done their job by creating the atmosphere, that visual space where the actors make their characters come to life, in such a way as to help make the scene come alive without detracting from the action. I like to call this art form as it applies to horror movies, atmosphear.

And, what better way to introduce the subject of atmosphere than with images of a beautiful woman in a nightgown and a fog-drenched graveyard? Pretty Nina Foch, playing Nicki Saunders, has been sinisterly ensorceled by the vampire Armand Tesla (Bela Lugosi) in RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE (Columbia Pictures, 1944). Art Direction was by Lionel Banks and Victor Greene. Banks also contributed art direction to two other genre films for Columbia in 1944, CRY OF THE WEREWOLF (also starring Foch), and THE SOUL OF A MONSTER. Set decorations were handled by Lous Diage, who later went on to work on many well-known TV shows of the sixties, including THE MONKEES, THE FLYING NUN, and I DREAM OF JEANNIE. The person with the fog machine was no doubt special effects man Aaron Nibley.